Russia losing arms markets in Asia, Middle East

Moscow, Feb 6 (IANS/RIA Novosti) Russia is losing arms markets in Asia and the Middle East, two of its traditional strongholds, but gaining new ones in Latin America and Africa, a Russian arms official said ahead of an aviation expo in India.

"While losing some, we have gained new markets, like Venezuela for instance," said Alexander Fomin, head of Russia's Federal Military-Technical Cooperation Service. Fomin is leading Russia's delegation at the Aero India show, that opens Wednesday near Bangalore.

India was a major buyer of Russian weaponry that has recently been opting for Western hardware.

"We are getting back forgotten, old Soviet markets, like Peru for example. In Africa - Mali, Ghana, Tanzania, Uganda. In Asia - Oman," he said.

Fomin conceded Russia had lost a number of clients for its weapons due to recent events in the Middle East and North Africa.

"This is connected to the conflicts and wars. Cooperation with Libya has stopped temporarily, and there's a slump in deliveries to Egypt and Iran, our work with Syria is being impeded. That's a fact. We've lost Iraq and we've almost lost Afghanistan," he told RIA Novosti.

Fomin said the quality of products had gotten poorer, but this applied across the board, not just to Russia.

"There is a drop in quality, and this applies to our main competitors as well. It's absolutely the same. But these are one-off, occasional and solvable issues," he said.

The official added that Russian-made products remain much cheaper than their Western counterparts.

Fomin's comments come after India, which has traditionally bought the vast majority of its weaponry from the Soviet Union and then Russia, signed a string of deals in recent years with the US and Western European nations for new hardware, in preference to Russian systems.